Colorado Dog Bite Lawyer — Free Consultation

Mixed Statute State

Colorado is a mixed-statute state: strict liability covers economic damages only, and only when the bite caused serious bodily injury — everything else runs through a separate negligence claim.

Your Rights After a Dog Bite in Colorado

Colorado has a dog bite statute, C.R.S. § 13-21-124, and it does remove the need to prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous. But it's a narrower tool than a strict-liability label implies, which is why this site classifies Colorado as a mixed-statute state rather than lumping it in with California or Florida. The statute applies only where the bite caused serious bodily injury or death, and it allows recovery of economic damages only — medical bills, lost wages, future care. Pain and suffering is not available under it.

That's why most serious Colorado claims are pleaded in two parts: the statutory count for economic losses, plus a common-law negligence or scienter count to reach everything else. Section 13-21-124(6)(a) expressly preserves those other theories, and leaving them out is one of the more expensive drafting mistakes in this area. Below is what the statute actually says, where its six exceptions bite, and what to do next — a licensed Colorado attorney can apply it to your specific facts.

The practical work in a Colorado case is heavier than in a pure strict liability state, and it starts earlier. Whether the injury clears the "serious bodily injury" threshold is a medical-records question that gets fought over. Whether a sign was posted, where, and whether it was legible is a photographs-and-witnesses question that decays within days. Whether the owner had notice of the dog's propensities — the fact that non-economic damages depend on — usually means tracking down prior complaints, neighbors, or earlier animal-control contacts. Very little of that gets easier with time.

Fees work the same way they do elsewhere: contingency, nothing upfront, commonly around a third of the recovery, paid only from what's recovered. If there's no recovery there's typically no fee, which is why a free consultation is worth having even on a claim you suspect is small.

How long a Colorado claim takes turns mostly on whether the two-count structure is contested. A statutory-only claim with clear serious injury and cooperative coverage can resolve in months. Add a fight over the owner's knowledge — which is what the non-economic damages depend on — and a year or more is ordinary. Settling before treatment reaches maximum medical improvement is the usual regret, and in Colorado it's compounded by the fact that the pain-and-suffering half of the claim is the part most often undervalued in an early offer.

Some bites don't need a lawyer. Minor injury, no lasting mark, insurer not disputing anything — that can be handled directly. What changes it here: any injury near the serious-bodily-injury line, a posted-sign defense being raised, a child victim, a denied claim, or an insurer offering to pay medical bills only while quietly treating the non-economic claim as though it doesn't exist.

The evidence that decides a Colorado claim is worth gathering regardless: photographs of the wound over time, photographs of the property including any signage and where it was posted, the animal-control report, the owner's insurance details, witnesses, and the full medical record. A consultation is largely an attorney reading that material and telling you whether the statutory count, the negligence count, or both are realistically available.

For low-dollar claims, Colorado small claims court handles disputes up to $7,500 without attorneys, in the county where the defendant lives or where the incident happened. It's the wrong venue for anything involving surgery, contested liability, or an insurer, but for a modest claim against an unresponsive owner it moves faster and costs less than a case that was never going to justify counsel. Larger claims go to county court up to $25,000, and district court above that.

Colorado Dog Bite Laws

C.R.S. § 13-21-124(2) provides: "A person or a personal representative of a person who suffers serious bodily injury or death from being bitten by a dog while lawfully on public or private property shall be entitled to bring a civil action to recover economic damages against the dog owner regardless of the viciousness or dangerous propensities of the dog or the dog owner's knowledge or lack of knowledge of the dog's viciousness or dangerous propensities."

Full breakdown of the statute, comparative negligence rules, and exceptions: Colorado Dog Bite Laws →

What Compensation Can You Recover?

Economic damages are what the statute reaches directly: emergency and follow-up treatment, rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, reconstructive or revision surgery, physical therapy, and lost income, plus the reasonable cost of future care where an injury hasn't finished healing.

Non-economic damages — pain, suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement, and a lasting fear of dogs — are recoverable in Colorado, but not under § 13-21-124. They come through the parallel negligence or scienter claim, which means they depend on proving something about the owner's conduct or knowledge. That structural split is the single most important thing to understand about valuing a Colorado bite claim, and it's why an early offer that covers the medical bills exactly is often an offer that quietly ignores half the case.

Colorado also caps non-economic damages by statute, with the general limit adjusted for inflation by the Secretary of State and periodically raised by the legislature; the applicable figure depends on when the claim accrued, and an attorney can confirm the current number for your date of injury. Most claims are paid from a homeowners or renters policy with limits typically between $100,000 and $500,000.

For a child, facial or hand scarring generally values higher than the same injury on an adult, because a scar stretches as a child grows and often needs revision later. Colorado tolls the limitations period for minors under C.R.S. § 13-81-103 until the child turns 18 — with the significant exception that tolling does not extend the 182-day notice deadline under the Governmental Immunity Act.

See typical dollar ranges: Colorado Settlement Amounts →

Steps to Take After a Dog Bite

Colorado's first steps look like anywhere else's with one addition that matters more here than almost anywhere. Get medical care immediately, both because bite wounds carry a real infection risk from Pasteurella and Capnocytophaga and because whether your injury qualifies as "serious bodily injury" under § 18-1-901(3)(p) is a medical-records question that gets decided on what the treating provider wrote down. Then photograph the property, not just the wound — specifically any "No Trespassing" or "Beware of Dog" signage, where it was posted, and whether it was visible from where you were standing, because a posted sign is a complete defense to the statutory claim and that evidence disappears within days. Get the owner's name, address, phone, and insurance details before leaving. Report the bite to your local animal control, which starts the ten-day observation period and creates an official record independent of the owner's account. Photograph the wound again as it heals. And be careful with recorded statements — an adjuster who asks whether you saw a sign, or what you were doing just before the bite, is asking about subsection (5), not making conversation.

Statute of Limitations

Colorado gives you two years from the date of the bite to file, under the general personal injury limitations statute at C.R.S. § 13-80-102(1)(a), and that same two-year period applies to the statutory claim under § 13-21-124 and to a wrongful death claim measured from the date of death. For a minor, C.R.S. § 13-81-103 tolls the period until the child turns 18, with the two years running from there. The exception that causes real damage is governmental: because § 13-21-124(6)(c) preserves the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, any claim touching a public entity — a municipal animal-control dog, a police K-9, a bite on government property — requires written notice of claim within 182 days of discovering the injury, and that deadline is jurisdictional and is not tolled for minors. Missing it ends the claim regardless of how much of the two-year window is left. Colorado courts may also apply a discovery rule where the connection between the bite and a later-diagnosed injury genuinely wasn't apparent, though that's a narrow exception rather than something to rely on.

Full breakdown of the statute, its exceptions, and how shared fault is handled: Colorado dog bite laws →

Find a Dog Bite Lawyer Near You in Colorado

• Denver Dog Bite Lawyer
• Colorado Springs (guide coming soon)